Getting busy

The end of the school year here seems to start in September. Three months before the actual end of the year. It begins with Sports Days. It was Hannah's last week, Elijah has his on Friday. Yesterday it was Secondary's turn in the school sports grounds 20 miles outside the city centre. It was a beautiful sunny day and a perfect day for sports. Also starting this week are the IGCSE Exam practicals. Both international and Paraguayan exams continue until the end of November. It's a very long exam period.

Eileen is practising with some primary children for a choir competition in a couple of weeks and gearing up for Christmas performances too. Then she has end of year reports to being to write. She has also been involved in a Purpose Driven Life group that the school is going to provide for parents soon.

Last week our school also helped to repair and paint a local state school. Many of the young people and children went down dressed in old clothes and got stuck in painting the Cubas School. It was one of the most dilapidated school buildings you would ever see. After a day's painting by everyone it was restored and the principal said it was better than new. They had a thanks giving service yesterday. I'll get some photos and put them on-line soon.

Our church small group starts again tomorrow and there is good interest in this and another Alpha that we hope to do next year. Numbers are still low in the services after families moved on in July, but we are picking up new people gradually.

So keep praying for the St. Andrew's College Asunción, and the work of the English speaking Anglican church here.

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Helping parishes respond to climate change and the environment
Are you interested in how your parish can help the environment? The Church of Ireland’s Church and Society Commission is holding a climate change and environment seminar at Church of Ireland House, Donegall Street, Belfast.
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It's time to Care for Creation
Introduction
Today David and I are going to give you two short and complementary perspectives on God’s creation and the actions we can take in response to environmental issues. Then we’ll take questions and hear what you have to say.

I’m going to cover three points: A call to careA call to act, and Time to Take action
So first,

[Slide 1] A call to care
Conferences like New Wine are great at stirring us up an…

Yesterday was the seminar on 'Helping parishes respond to climate change' organised by the Church of Ireland. It was very good to see this happen in Belfast and the was a lot of interest from attendees on how churches can do more on climate.

I was one of the speakers and it was great to have a full room in the Council Chamber in Church House in Belfast, beside the beautiful cathedral.

I have reproduced the slides and the text of the talk below.

A Biblical Perspective on the Environment
[Slide 1] I have been asked to set the scene and provide a Biblical Perspective on the environment. But to be honest, I do not know why I was asked, for I am not a theologian nor I am not a clergy person.

But I think the reason might be this - several years I was impacted by what the Bible has to say on about creation, how we treat it, and how the church has responded to the crisis unfolding before us.

And we are facing a crisis. Be it climate change, pollution, or loss of biodiversity. As the …